identifier: traitmech:000719
label: fungal nematophagy
definition: A nutritional phenotype in which a fungus consumes nematodes as food.
definition_source: DOI:10.3390/f10050404
trait_category: ECOLOGY
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000059
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.3390/f10050404
  snippet: Nematophagy implies the consumption of nematodes.
  notes: 'Marlin et al. 2019, Introduction, PDF page 1: directly read terminology,
    not an independent experiment. The fungal actor qualifies the term; consumption,
    not paralysis alone, defines the endpoint. Publisher PDF visually checked. Native
    DOI abstract verifier: UNRESOLVED, retained separately from the direct match.
    Crossref and USDA identify the same DOI/title.'
- reference: DOI:10.3390/f10050404
  snippet: Susceptible rhabditid species (Poikilolaimus oxycercus) being consumed
    by Pleurotus ostreatus hyphae.
  notes: 'Figure 2a caption, actual PDF page 6 and panel inspected, with Methods 2.1-2.3
    and Results 3.2. This is a source-named feeding observation, not measured nutrient
    flux. Native verifier: UNRESOLVED. Host susceptibility is differential; neither
    all nematodes nor all Pleurotus isolates are asserted. The two excerpts from this
    paper total 17 words.'
- reference: https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/fan/40780.pdf
  snippet: The saprophytic and predacious ability appeared not to be mutually exclusive.
  notes: den Belder and Jansen 1994, Summary, PDF page 1, directly and visually matched.
    Selected Methods, Results and Discussion, including actual pages 6-8, describe
    Arthrobotrys oligospora CBS 289.82 feeding on living and previously killed Meloidogyne
    hapla juveniles. Internal hyphal occupancy is not a tracer assimilation assay.
    The excerpt supports nonexclusive feeding modes, not an exact rate. URL evidence
    is not run by the native DOI/PMID abstract verifier.
- reference: DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3002400
  snippet: At mid to late time points, we observed hyphal growth inside nematodes
    following penetration of the cuticle, corresponding to digestion.
  notes: 'Lin et al. 2023, PMID:37988381; Results subsection on late-time protease
    induction, publisher XML sec018. Native verifier: NOT_IN_ABSTRACT; exact full-text
    match. Actual Figure 5, Table 1 and S7 inspected. GFP-labeled reference TWF3407
    is engineered, not an unmodified natural exemplar. Protease inhibition delays
    internal growth at 12 h without proving complete feeding loss or quantifying assimilation.
    Remaining figures and raw S1 spreadsheet were not fully audited.'
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:5322
  taxon_label: Pleurotus ostreatus
  reference: DOI:10.3390/f10050404
  note: 'Qualified Figure 2a example: unnamed culture isolated from grocery-store
    mushrooms and identified morphologically, per Methods 2.1 at https://doi.org/10.3390/f10050404.
    The water-agar assay used 20 mixed-age nematodes and assessed this fungus after
    one week. No strain deposit, molecular identification or genetic provenance is
    inferred. NCBI EFetch resolved the species on 2026-10-13.'
discussions:
- discussion_id: fungal-nematophagy-scope-and-hierarchy
  prompt: Resolve the broader feeding hierarchy without imposing a capture mechanism
    or carbon-specific endpoint.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: Feeding on living or previously dead nematodes is included; fungal killing,
    obligacy and starvation are not universal requirements. Mere contact, paralysis,
    killing, trap formation or a sequence annotation alone is insufficient. Fungal
    nematode-trap formation (traitmech:000718) is structural, neither necessary nor
    sufficient for feeding. Mycoparasitism (traitmech:000717) has fungal prey; predatory
    bacterium (traitmech:000054) has a bacterial actor and prey. Phagotrophy (traitmech:000628),
    myzocytosis (traitmech:000631) and pallium feeding (traitmech:000632) impose different
    uptake modes. Saprotrophy (traitmech:000055) can overlap, without organism-level
    disjointness. Local parasitism (traitmech:000043) inherits persistent association,
    not required here. Keep phenotype METPO:1000059 pending a closer feeding hierarchy;
    no universal carbon, nitrogen or energy contribution is specified. Bare nematophagy
    includes nonfungal actors and is not an exact synonym. No unverified synonyms
    or xrefs are asserted.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-10-13'
- discussion_id: fungal-nematophagy-metpo-assessment
  prompt: Review upstream placement without reviving deprecated identifiers.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: Pinned and current METPO lack an exact active counterpart in the inspected
    scope. Historical METPO:0000005 and METPO:000005 are deprecated and replace to
    active METPO:1000631 trophic type, a carbon/energy axis rather than this prey-defined
    feeding phenotype. METPO:1000644 is organic-carbon heterotrophy and METPO:1000731
    concerns nutrient-availability adaptation. Deprecated METPO:0000261, METPO:000262
    and METPO:1000125 concern fungal spores; METPO:1000227 is parasitism. No replacement
    or consider annotation was observed for those four. Their OMO:0001000 reasons
    neither invalidate biology nor authorize reuse. Historical IDs are not exact xrefs.
    The pinned ontology remains unchanged; v595 proposes the new class.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-10-13'
- discussion_id: fungal-nematophagy-source-and-mechanism-limits
  prompt: Resolve source inconsistencies and taxon-paired effectors before adding
    a causal graph.
  kind: KNOWLEDGE_GAP
  status: OPEN
  rationale: 'Marlin''s Table 2 conflicts with its Introduction on two host responses;
    Table 3 and Results differ for P. artyukhovskii. Those disputed host ranges are
    not imported. den Belder''s Figure 2 panel labels/caption, Table 3 direction and
    significance notation disagree with prose; no numerical rates are adopted. Lin''s
    Results uses mep1 where Table 1 and Figure 5 use mcp1; no protein identity is
    silently reconciled. Its linked DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003178 is a later Update
    Article, not a correction or independent laboratory replication. Capture and digestion
    have distinct assays; expression associations do not establish universal effectors.
    No causal graph, protein example or chemical mechanism is asserted. Source-status
    checks are bounded: MDPI''s notice page returned 403, and no comprehensive notice
    clearance is claimed. Source hashes, inspected sections and actual native verdicts
    are retained in the verification sidecar.'
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-10-13'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-10-13T15:34:51Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Added fungal nematophagy with four contiguous excerpts from three sources
    and a qualified Pleurotus example. Distinguished feeding from trapping, paralysis
    and quantified assimilation. Reserved 000719, v595 and 1067200-1067299 after ignored/hidden
    current-file, retained-history and open/draft PR checks; numerical false positives
    adjudicated. No exact active METPO counterpart identified. Other records unchanged.
    Timestamp is observed post-audit acceptance.
  llm_assisted: true